Eugene Goostman, a computer programme pretending to be a young
Ukrainian boy, successfully duped enough humans to pass the iconic test

A programme that convinced humans that it was a 13-year-old boy has
become the first computer ever to pass the Turing Test. The test — which
requires that computers are indistinguishable from humans — is
considered a landmark in the development of artificial intelligence, but
academics have warned that the technology could be used for cybercrime.

Computing pioneer Alan Turing said that a computer could be
understood to be thinking if it passed the test, which requires that a
computer dupes 30 per cent of human interrogators in five-minute text
conversations.

Eugene Goostman, a computer programme made by a
team based in Russia, succeeded in a test conducted at the Royal Society
in London. It convinced 33 per cent of the judges that it was human,
said academics at the University of Reading, which organised the test.

It
is thought to be the first computer to pass the iconic test. Though
other programmes have claimed successes, those included set topics or
questions in advance.

A version of the computer programme, which was created in 2001, is hosted online for anyone talk to.
(“I feel about beating the turing test in quite convenient way. Nothing
original,” said Goostman, when asked how he felt after his success.)

The computer programme claims to be a 13-year-old boy from Odessa in Ukraine.

"Our
main idea was that he can claim that he knows anything, but his age
also makes it perfectly reasonable that he doesn't know everything,"
said Vladimir Veselov, one of the creators of the programme. "We spent a
lot of time developing a character with a believable personality."

The
programme's success is likely to prompt some concerns about the future
of computing, said Kevin Warwick, a visiting professor at the University
of Reading and deputy vice-chancellor for research at Coventry
University.

"In the field of Artificial Intelligence there is no more
iconic and controversial milestone than the Turing Test, when a computer
convinces a sufficient number of interrogators into believing that it
is not a machine but rather is a human," he said. "Having a computer
that can trick a human into thinking that someone, or even something,
is a person we trust is a wake-up call to cybercrime.
"The Turing
Test is a vital tool for combatting that threat. It is important to
understand more fully how online, real-time communication of this type
can influence an individual human in such a way that they are fooled
into believing something is true... when in fact it is not."

The
test, organised at the Royal Society on Saturday, featured five
programmes in total. Judges included Robert Llewellyn, who played robot
Kryten in Red Dwarf, and Lord Sharkey, who led the successful campaign
for Alan Turing's posthumous pardon last year.

Alan Turing created
the test in a 1950 paper, 'Computing Machinery and Intelligence'. In
it, he said that because 'thinking' was difficult to define, what
matters is whether a computer could imitate a real human being. It has
since become a key part of the philosophy of artificial intelligence.
The success came on the 60th anniversary of Turing's death, on Saturday.